 Ma Ying-jeou meets Chen Yunlin, president of China's Association for Relations across the Taiwan Straits, in November 2008. Photo credit: Xing Guangli, Xinhua |
The cross-strait rapprochement that began when Ma Ying-jeou became Taiwanese president in 2008 marked a clear decline in the number of publicized Taiwanese espionage cases in mainland China. Based on open-source materials, Dui Hua’s Political Prisoner Database holds information on more than 90 Taiwanese “spies” detained or convicted between 2000 and 2008—during the presidency of Chen Shui-bian—compared with just five people convicted for espionage after Ma took office. Four of these convictions were for selling military secrets and led to sentences ranging from death with reprieve to 15 years' imprisonment.
Court records from Hunan describe the fifth case involving Long Jianbin, who was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. The official account charges Long with collecting information about leadership changes and political, military, and economic developments for someone he “should have known” was a Taiwanese agent.
Through an online job search, Long was hired to work part time for a man surnamed Lee, who called himself the assistant vice president of a media company. After taking on initial assignments, Long reported Lee to relevant government bodies, perhaps concerned that he had gotten involved in illegal matters. Receiving no response from the government, however, Long continued to collect materials, many of which appear to have been publically available.
One of the collected publications, Selected Internal Reference, is a limited distribution compendium of news and opinion pieces sold principally to government bodies and work units, but often made available to their employees. As social commentator Zhang Shihe (张世和) noted in 2007, cadres often sell the publication to scrap recyclers, while other internal publications were often made widely available by profit-driven publishers. Other so-called internal publications that Long collected, like Dispatches of from the General Office of the Communist Party of China, contain articles that can be freely viewed online. Perhaps acknowledging that the information Long supplied did little harm to state security, the court meted out a relatively short sentence.
(Article 110 of the Criminal Law prescribes 3-10 years’ imprisonment for acts of espionage with minor circumstances.)
Zhuzhou Court Records Verdict: click to expand
Long Jianbin Espionage Case
Prosecutor: Zhuzhou People’s Procuratorate of Hunan Province
Defendant: Long Jianbin.
As the result of an online posting in which he sought part-time work, in September 2008, defendant Long Jianbin received a recruitment email for an editorial post with a generous remuneration package from someone calling himself “Assistant Vice President Lee” of Huayu Media Information Center. Long provided samples of his writing and editing ability over the Internet and expressed his interest in the job. Assistant Vice President Lee instructed Long to collect information on position changes and transfers among high-ranking officials and on political, military, and economic conditions. Long collected materials using methods such as Internet downloads, purchasing books and newspapers from local stores, and scanning Selected Internal References at the Chalin County Party Committee Office. He then used foreign computer networks to compress and encrypt the collected materials and sent them to “Assistant Vice President Lee.” Long received from “Assistant Vice President Lee” three payment transfers totaling 14,000 yuan around January 7, 2009. At this time, Long started to have suspicions about the identity of Assistant Vice President Lee and filed an online report with relevant state bodies. After receiving no reply, Long continued cooperation with Lee. During the period of September 2008 to June 2009, under the instructions of “Assistant Vice President Lee,” an agent of a Taiwanese espionage organization, Long took from the Chalin County Confidential Affairs Bureau and borrowed from his own work unit classified materials and information from 27 issues of Selected Internal References and three issues of Dispatches from the General Office of the Communist Party of China and other works. Adhering to transmission methods imparted by the agent of the espionage organization, he sent the information to Taiwanese espionage organization agent “Assistant Vice President Lee” over the Internet and received from “Assistant Vice President Lee” five payment transfers totaling 10,000 yuan. Using aliases such as “Li Xiang,” “Da Hai,” and “Song Weiping,” Long Jianbin received espionage payments totaling RMB 24,000 yuan.
After conducting a trial, the intermediate court found that defendant Long Jianbin, under circumstances in which he should have known that “Assistant Vice President Lee” was an agent of a foreign espionage organization, accepted assignments and requests from “Assistant Vice President Lee” and used secretive online methods to provide [him] with several confidential national documents and information. His actions constitute the crime of espionage. In accordance with the law, his sentence is as follows: 1) For the crime of espionage, defendant Long Jianbin is sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of five years and deprivation of political rights for one year with confiscation of personal assets of 10,000 yuan; 2) recovery of the 24,000 yuan [Long Jianbin] illegally obtained, transferred to the state treasury; and 3) confiscation of the tools used in committing the crime—one notebook computer, three desktop computers, and a USB flash drive.
 | Chinese Source（原文）: 株洲市法院志 2011年，115-116页 Zhouzhou Court Records, (2011), pp.115-116 Click on icon to expand |
龙建斌间谍案。
公诉机关湖南省株洲市人民检察院。
被告人龙建斌。
被告人龙建斌通过在网上求兼职，在2008年9月份收到了一个华昱传播信息中心自称是“李协理”的人，发来招聘采编人员并有优厚待遇的邮件，龙建斌通过网络将自己的文字和编辑能力进行介绍并表示愿意兼职。李协理要龙建斌收集大陆高层人员变动、政治、军事、经济等方面的情况。龙建斌即通过从网上下裁、当地购买书报和到茶陵县委领取《内参选编》扫描等方式收集资料，使用境外域网压缩加密将收集的资料发给"李协理"。并于2009年1月7日前后分三次收到了“李协理”汇来的人民币14000元。此时龙建斌开始怀疑李协理的身份，并通过网上向国家有关部门进行举报，在没有得到回应后，龙建斌又继续与李协理合作。在2008年9月至2009年6月间，龙建斌接受台湾间谍组织代理人“李协理”的指示，通过到茶陵县委机要局领取和在本单位借阅等方式，先后搜集《内参选编》27期、《中共中央办公厅通讯》3期等涉密资料和情报，按照间谍组织代理人传授的传输方式，通过互联网发送给了台湾间谍组织代理人“李协理”，又分五次收到了"李协理"汇来的人民币1万元。龙建斌分别用“李湘”、“大海”、“宋伟平”等化名领取间谍经费共计人民币24000元。
中院审理后认为，被告人龙建斌在应当知道“李协理”为境外间谍组织代理人的情况下，接受“李协理”的任务和要求，在网上以隐秘方式向“李协理”提供多份国家秘密文件和情报，其行为巳构成间谍罪。依法判决：一、被告人龙建斌犯间谍罪，判处有期徒刑五年，剥夺政治权利一年，并处没收个人财产10000元；二、追缴非法所得24000元，上缴国库；三、对作案工具笔记本电脑一台、电脑主机三台、U 盘一个予以没收。
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